Outside In (13 page)

She raised her right eyebrow. “You keep Zippy in your room?”

“In case I need him. Can you bring him back when you’re done?”

Anne-Jade left muttering about smoke damaged wits. I had told her the truth about Zippy, but not the entire reason I kept the little cleaning troll near my bed. He’s been with me through some tough times. And he filled the void left by Sheepy.

At hour sixty, Anne-Jade returned with Zippy and the glass detector. Although her surprise inspection had netted her an interesting and scary array of illegal devices, weapons and contraband, she didn’t find a computer linked to the network.

Which meant another person or group were the Controllers. Not good. Two hours later, I hurried over to Logan’s room.

Faint voices rolled through the shaft as I neared his vent. I slowed, keeping as quiet as possible as I slid the final meter. Logan’s aggravated tone was easy to recognize. The other two sounded calmer and were harder to discern.

“…long are you going to keep me here?” Logan demanded.

“…safe…saboteurs…life,” a man’s voice said.

“I’ll stay in the Control Room. No one can get in there.” Logan’s anger rang clear.

“…rebellion…easy…”

“That’s because we were all helping her. Besides, Trella’s not a danger to me, you unrecyclable idiot. She’s my friend.”

More murmuring and I strained to hear the rest. The voices stopped and the door clicked shut. Metallic snaps and clangs followed before silence filled the room. I waited a few minutes until I was certain Logan’s keepers had left, then I dropped down to the floor.

Logan stared at the closed door, hugging his arm to his chest.

“Logan, if you want to leave here, just say the word and I’ll find you the perfect hiding place.”

He spun around. “No worries, I’m fine. I just have to whine and complain to my captors or else they’ll suspect I’m up to something. Did you hear my little tantrum about being bored to death?”

“No.”

“Too bad, it was quite the performance.” He crossed to his computer and pulled the keyboard out from its hiding place. Tapping a few keys, the screen lit up and displayed the picture of the hallway. The two guards walked down the corridor.

Still impressed by the moving pictures, I asked, “Do I even possess the rudimentary knowledge to understand how you invented a device that sees?”

He puffed up his chest. “No. You need to be a genius like me.”

“I’m glad your sense of self worth hasn’t changed,” I teased.

“If you must know, I found the information and schematics in the computer. It’s called a Video Camera.”

“I remember them now. They were all over Inside, and a room full of computer screens for watchers to keep an eye on everyone. But I thought they were all destroyed.”

“Those were. They were about fifteen centimeters long, by five centimeters wide, by three high. Bigger than mine, easier to spot and to smash.”

“You can’t blame them. It’s creepy having someone spying on you.”

“Not that different from the mics we’re using.”

“I disagree. It’s a big difference.” I shuddered.

Logan shrugged. “I was hoping to make more of these, but…” He closed his eyes and touched his eyelids with his fingertips, smoothing the skin as if he could wipe the injury away. “There are a few Video Cameras pointed toward Outside. They hadn’t been damaged by the riots. I’d show you the pictures, but access to them has been blocked. Too bad, as they’re really fascinating.”

Another shudder shook my body. “No thanks. I’ve already seen Outside and I’m not fascinated at all.”
Horrified
would be my word of choice. To rid myself of the image, I studied the screen. “The big guy on the left seems familiar,” I said. “Too bad I missed their faces.”

Logan’s fingers danced on the keyboard and the men walked backward, disappeared and appeared again, but this time facing forward. They continued to walk backward for a few steps, then froze.

“How’s that? Or do you want them closer?”

“That’s good.” I leaned forward and peered at the monitor. “The guy on the left reminds me of…someone. I’ve seen him before, but I can’t place him.” I hoped his name would eventually click.

In the meantime, I updated Logan on the search for the computer linked to the Controllers’. “Not in the Trava Sector. Where should I look next?”

He drummed his fingers on the edge of the keyboard. “Every Inside computer is suspect now.”

“That’s…” I couldn’t even calculate a number.

“Two thousand, four hundred and nine computers.”

My emotions warred between being impressed by Logan’s memory and astounded by the sheer number of computers. “I couldn’t—”

“Impossible to check them all.” His fingers tapped again. “Did you bring the detector with you?”

“No.”

“Next time you come, bring it along. I might be able to adjust it to hone in on the Controllers’ signal over a wider area.” He then added a number of other items he needed me to fetch for him.

Heading back to the infirmary through the air shafts, I concentrated on remembering Logan’s list. When Doctor Lamont’s voice sounded in my ear, I almost hit my head on the top of the shaft.

“Trella, Bubba Boom is here and he insists I wake you,” she said. “What should I do?”

I fumbled for the button mic. “What’s so important?”

“He wouldn’t say.”

Curious. “Tell him you woke me and I’ll be out in a couple minutes. I’m almost home.”

“Okay.” She clicked off.

It wasn’t until I had swung down into my room that I realized I had called the infirmary home. I really needed to return our world to a more normal state before I started calling Lamont Mom.

Changing into my green long-sleeved medical uniform, I pulled strands of my hair from my braid to appear sleep tousled. No need to act tired—sleep remained a low priority.

Bubba Boom wasted no time with hellos. He took my hand and pulled me from the infirmary and out into the hallway.

“Let go.” I yanked, but he wouldn’t release me. “What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you in a minute.” He kept his quick pace through the corridors.

The few people we passed gave us either curious stares or smirks, or ignored us. Bubba Boom dropped my hand as soon as we reached a quiet corner.

“I know you don’t believe me about Jacy.” He held a finger up before I could interrupt. “He’s in his office and you should see for yourself who he’s been…collaborating with.”

“Why can’t you tell me?”

“Better this way.” He pointed to a vent above our heads. “This will take you over the Committee members’ offices in Sector H3.”

“I’m not supposed to go into the air shafts. The tracer—”

“Isn’t that accurate. It’ll appear as if you walked through the Sector. You need to hurry before he finishes his meeting.”

I glanced up. The vent was in the middle of the ceiling. “I’ll need a boost.”

He squatted down, holding his hands out. “Stand on my shoulders.”

I kicked off my mocs, grabbed his hands for balance, and stepped onto him. He stood with ease and steadied my legs. The vent was within reach and I pushed it open. As I squirmed into the duct, I marveled at Bubba Boom’s strength and height. He didn’t appear to be that tall, but I doubted even Cog could boost me that high.

“I’ll wait here for you,” he called.

It took me a few minutes to get my bearings and head in the right direction. Despite Bubba Boom’s suggestion to hurry, I slowed as I crossed over the Committee’s offices. Bluelights glowed from most of them. No sounds or voices drifted, but that didn’t mean no one was below.

The bright square of daylights reflecting off the metal duct marked Jacy’s office well before his voice reached me.

“…don’t know…she…problem,” Jacy said.

Two almost-familiar male voices answered him, and I crept with care for the last two meters. The front half of Jacy’s desk and two sets of legs facing it were visible from my vantage point. I strained to match the voices with faces and names.

“All your plans sound feasible, but you need to repair that Transmission before you can do anything else,” said an authoritative and scary voice. Why scary? I searched my memories.

“We tried,” Jacy said. “Karla sent us a trio of idiots.”

“No surprise. She was having fun with that little scrub.
I’ll
send you the right people.”

I tucked that tidbit away for now.

“How do we get them past Hank?” asked the third man.

My hand flew to my cheek. I couldn’t forget that voice. Sloan. Bubba Boom was right. Jacy had set me up!

“He has people in the power plant all the time,” Sloan said.

“How long would they need?” Jacy asked.

“A couple hours at most,” Authoritative and Scary said.

“We’ll stage a distraction. If they wear the maintenance coveralls, they’ll blend right in,” Jacy said.

While Jacy working with Sloan was a bad thing, fixing the Transmission wasn’t. I guessed Jacy had used the sabotage and the attack on Logan as a distraction so he could grab control of the computers and therefore Inside. It would make sense that he’d want to fix the Transmission once he gained power.

“What happens once the Transmission is repaired?” Sloan asked.

“We implement your plan,” Authoritative and Scary said.

That comment supported my mutiny theory. Sloan and the other man stood and each shook Jacy’s hand over the desk. I willed the unknown man to turn left to leave instead of right so I could see his face.

For once, I had my wish. I caught a glimpse of his beak of a nose and black mustache. His features were familiar. An upper, but not one I’ve seen more than once or twice.

I chased the logic as I traveled back to where Bubba Boom waited. Scary had been one of my initial reactions, which meant I must associate him with a frightening event. Perhaps he had been a Pop Cop. But from the commanding tone of his voice, he was used to giving orders. Unfortunately, I knew most of the higher ranked Pop Cops. The answer slammed into me.

The other man was Captain James Trava.

AS SOON AS I PULLED THE VENT OPEN, BUBBA BOOM
appeared below. I hung down. He grabbed me around my waist and lowered me to the floor.

He stared at me a minute before releasing me. “Now do you believe me?”

“Yes. How did you know about the Captain?”

“Hank never trusted Jacy, and one of our guys found a maintenance panel that had been tampered with in Sector D4.”

“Maintenance panel?”

“There’re these covers on the walls that blend in and are easy to remove in case you need to get to the pipes and wires inside. It’s better to pop off a panel than cut a hole in the wall. The Travas have been using the one in Sector D4 to sneak in and out.”

“But there are ISF officers all over the place.”

“Not up here. Heck, anyone wearing an upper’s shirt and pants can stroll around levels three and four without any problems.”

Sounded familiar. I had traveled the halls of the upper levels without notice when the Pop Cops had been in charge. Why? Not enough Pop Cops and people who kept to themselves too scared to get involved. Same thing, different names. There had to be a way to break that cycle, to unite us. The answer eluded me.

We headed back to the infirmary. I mulled over the information.

Jacy could no longer be trusted so everything he had told me should be considered a lie. The biggest threat to Jacy and Captain Trava was Logan. Even though it had been for the wrong reason, the Committee had actually done the right thing when they put Logan into protective custody.

As we neared the infirmary, Bubba Boom asked me to accompany him to the dining room. Since we needed to make plans, I agreed. I poked my head into the patient area to inform Lamont. Because of the tracer, she had to tag along, but she claimed it was a good idea.

Bubba Boom had been quick to hide his frown, but she noticed and said, “Don’t worry, I won’t sit with you two.”

No one spoke as we turned south toward Quad G3. My thoughts still sorted through all that I had learned in the last few hours. Lamont filled her tray and joined a group of friends while Bubba Boom and I found an empty table as far away from everyone as possible. My plate contained a greenish-colored casserole, but I had no memory of scooping it.

I watched my mother. She appeared relaxed and when she smiled it changed her whole face, reaching all the way to her eyes. I realized she hadn’t been happy in a very long time. Which should seem obvious, but I held no memory of her ever showing any joy or peace even before she betrayed us.

What was different? Her daughter was alive and despite her tendency to downplay the risk, she put herself in considerable danger by carrying the tracer for me. I thought about what I’d done without hesitation for my friends.

I’d been willing to sacrifice myself for Cogon. Would I have done it for some stranger? While I’d like to think I would, if I was truly honest with myself, the answer would be probably not. And why were we strangers at all? We lived in a giant metal cube. Granted, the Pop Cops had separated us, but if we went back far enough, we were all related to one of the original nine families.

A little zip of understanding jolted me. Could the solution to our problems be that simple?

“…look. Should I be worried? Trella?” Bubba Boom waved a hand in front of my face.

“Sorry. I was just…”

“What?”

“Thinking.”

“I already figured that out.” He tilted his head toward Lamont. “Are your deep thoughts about your birth mother?”

“Yes, but they don’t help the situation with Jacy. Do you know what they’re planning?”

“No. We’ve just connected him to Sloan and the Captain recently.”

“We?”

“Me, Hank, Phelan, Kren and Ange. The maintenance soups…supervisors.”

“Aren’t you a little young to be a soup?”

He shrugged. “After the rebellion, not many people were willing to step up and take charge.”

Guilty of the same thing, I played with my food. At least I realized my mistake.

“We think Jacy and his cohorts are trying to hack into the computer network,” he said. “It hasn’t been working right the past two weeks. And if they gain control…”

“They already have.”

Bubba Boom’s expression flickered in surprise. “How do you know?”

Time to decide. If I wanted to fix the mess, I needed Bubba Boom and Hank’s help. They had already figured out a few things on their own. I explained to him about Jacy’s group using the mythical Controllers to give orders to the Committee and Anne-Jade. But for some unknown reason, I didn’t tell him about Logan.

“You’ve been confined to level three. How did you find out about all that?”

An interesting question. He didn’t seem too upset about the Controllers, but he did suspect something wasn’t right. “I’m allowed visitors.”

He studied me a moment. “If they truly have the network, there’s nothing we can do.”

But Logan could. I hoped. “At least Jacy and the Captain plan to fix the Transmission. That gives us one less problem to worry about.”

I surprised him again. “When?” he asked.

“I don’t know. But I think you should give them a predictable time when Hank won’t be nearby so they don’t have to create a distraction. And it will also give you an opportunity to see who else is involved.” Spoken like a true Pop Cop. They had enjoyed baiting and trapping as many scrubs as possible in their schemes.

“But without control of the computers, it won’t matter if we know who’s involved or not,” he said.

“We might be able to reclaim the computer systems.”

“Might? Do you really think we have a chance?”

“I’ve done more with less.”

He laughed. “So you’re asking us to trust you.”

“Yep.”

“I’ll talk to Hank. He’s been saying we need to start over so I’m sure he’ll agree to give you all the help you’ll need.”

Logan was thrilled to hear the Transmission might be repaired. He gave me one of his new tiny Video Cameras to plant so he could watch when they started working on the machine. Between my supply runs, he spent his time building gadgets. And I spent my free time with Bubba Boom. Since Hank and his crew had agreed to assist me, Bubba Boom acted as our go-between.

Modifying the glass tube detector, Logan returned it to me. Since I didn’t have the time to sweep all the Sectors and Quadrants in Inside to search for the active link to the Controllers, I passed it along to Hank and his crew to check them.

“You want to start doing what?” Lamont asked me.

“Using the vampire boxes,” I said again. It was hour fifteen during week 147,025, and the last fifty hours of traveling back and forth to Logan’s had been physically draining. I perched on the edge of the examination table while Lamont sorted through her supplies.

“Why?”

“The files with all the blood test data are…unavailable, so I want to do tests on everyone.”

Lamont stared at me as if I displayed symptoms of a high fever. “What do you want to test for?”

“Family bloodlines.”

“Why?”

“I think it’ll help us regain a sense of community. Instead of being the uppers and lowers we can be the Ashons and Minekos. Then each family can vote for a representative to be in the Committee of nine. But I think we still need a Captain. Someone like Hank.”

“Or you,” she said.

“I don’t have any technical knowledge of the ship.”

“You don’t need it. You have Logan, who you trust. A Captain can’t do everything, that’s why she has a support staff of trusted people.”

“The people of Inside might not be too happy to see me in that position.”

“You have good ideas. When you get us on the right track everyone will be happy.”

She had a lot of confidence in me. I waited for the familiar twist of fear in my stomach, but nothing happened. At least the thought of people relying on me didn’t scare me anymore. Instead, it gave me a push of motivation. Much better.

“The only problem with using the vampire boxes is we can’t put the results in the computer, and we don’t have enough wipe boards,” I said.

“Then we’ll do it the old-fashioned way.” Lamont gestured to the white metal walls. “They’re just giant wipe boards and we’ll have plenty of space.”

I laughed.

“Do you want to test everybody? Even those who know their family names already?”

“No. Just test the people in the lower levels. Will the boxes be able to tell which family they belong to from the blood sample?”

“The families have been mixing together for the last 145,027 weeks in the lower levels. It might be hard to find a clear match. We could do hybrid families like the Ashekos?”

“That would give us too many groups. I’d like to keep the numbers small. If possible, pick the dominate family and tell each person his or her family name.”

“And if I can’t?”

“Pick a family. Preferably one that is short on members.”

Lamont grinned then sobered. “One last problem. I can’t leave level three.”

“I’ll have to send them to you.”

“All eighteen thousand? How?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe Bubba Boom or Hank will have a suggestion.”

But I didn’t have a chance to ask them because soon after I finished my shift for Lamont at hour twenty, a series of loud metallic clangs rolled through Inside. The walls and floor shuddered with each, clearing the shelves and tripping anyone standing, including me. I had been in my room debating between sleeping and visiting Logan.

It wasn’t as severe as the Big Shake. More like Little Trembles.

I joined Lamont in the exam room.

“You think it was another bomb?” she asked.

“I hope not, but unless a piece of machinery malfunctioned there aren’t many other ways to cause that much movement.” And then I remembered Jacy had talked about creating a distraction. Bubba Boom had assured me Hank had changed his schedule and eliminated the need for a distraction. Perhaps Jacy suspected an ambush. Otherwise, it meant Jacy risked all our lives just because he could.

Helping Lamont prep for casualties, I worried about my friends. I would have liked to search for them, but already a few injured people had arrived.

I felt better when it became obvious that most of the injuries were minor. Cuts, bruises, a few broken arms and legs, a couple concussions and a number of sprained ankles and wrists. Nothing like the overwhelming deluge after the Big Shake. And no burns.

Sometime during the next ten hours, Bubba Boom stopped by. He had a small cut on his arm, but wouldn’t let me clean and bandage it.

He waved away my efforts. “It’s fine.”

When I asked about the others, he said, “I haven’t heard of any fatalities.” He pulled me outside and a few meters away from the infirmary. He lowered his voice. “The Transmission blew again. Jacy’s Travas either overloaded it by mistake or incompetence. Or they did it on purpose.”

“I heard them say
fix
.”

“Maybe that meant
fix
it so it won’t run again.”

“That bad?”

“It’s a mangled mess. We won’t know for a week or more.”

I wondered if Logan had watched the Travas with his Video Camera. Hank and Bubba Boom still thought he was in protective custody. They hadn’t asked how I would bypass Jacy’s Controllers, but at least they hunted for the active link.

“Any news about the link?” I asked.

“Nothing. And we’ll have to postpone the search until we can figure out what to do about the Transmission.”

Just what we needed—more delays. Jacy was bound to clamp down on our freedoms soon and release all the Travas. It still puzzled me why he hadn’t by now.

After the last of the injured had been seen and I had slept for over eight hours, I climbed into the ducts and visited Logan.

He pounced on me as soon as I dropped down into his room.

“I’ve been calling you for hours,” he said.

“I turned my receiver off so I could get some sleep. Sorry. Are you hurt?”

“No.” He twisted the bottom of his shirt, coiling it tight.

“What’s wrong? Did you see what happened—”

“Of course! I saw it all and I’ve been dying to talk to someone about it.” He paced and twisted. “I’m bored.”

I glanced at all his half-completed devices. “No. You’re lonely. I should stop by more often.”

He waved my comment away. “I’m sure you were busy.” He sprinted to the computer and tapped a few keys. “Come see what happened before the Video Camera died.”

The screen showed the long cylinder and control panel for the Transmission. Bluelights glowed in the empty room. Then the daylights flooded as three men dressed in maintenance coveralls approached the control panel. Logan pressed a key and the men moved super fast as they went back and forth from the panel to the machine.

“They worked on the Transmission for about an hour,” Logan said. “Here’s where it gets interesting.”

Their actions didn’t make sense to me, but there was no missing the bright flash just before the panel exploded. The men flew back and the screen turned dark.

“The energy pulse blew the Video Camera.” Logan swiveled around to me.

“Did they cause the explosion?”

“No. I studied that whole hour and it appeared to me they were repairing the damage from before.”

“What happened then?”

“The panel must have been rigged to blow when they reached a certain point.”

“Rigged by who? Did you see anyone else work on the machine?”

“No. The booby trap was in place before you installed the Video Camera.”

Booby trapped prior to the explosion? It didn’t make any sense. Everyone wanted the Transmission fixed. I pointed at Logan’s screen. “That first explosion set off a bunch of others.”

“Overkill, for sure. One was enough to obliterate the controls. Can you place another Video Camera in there for me? I’d like to see the extent of the damage.”

“A mangled mess, according to Bubba Boom.”

Logan sniffed. “I’d still like to see it for myself.”

“Okay.”

He gave me another Video Camera and a list of supplies. I climbed into the air shafts and crossed to the power plant. The Transmission was located in the southeast corner and the damage to the floor and walls from the first explosion hadn’t been repaired yet.